February 20, 1968, E. Clark Stillman of New York, noted authority and collector of Congo art, presented an illustrated lecture about the art of the Congo. The lecture was held in conjunction with the exhibition "The Art of the Congo", of Central African art on view at The Baltimore Museum of Art. Stillman's residence in Belgium for eight years and extensive travel in the former Belgian Congo and adjacent territories provided him with the opportunity to see the entire collection of Central African art of the Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervureen, Belgium and observe life in the Congo itself.

Transcript

Thank you very much, Chuck, Mr. Parker. I am afraid the introduction is little more grandiose than the talk. But the current exhibition in the museum here in Baltimore offers a magnificent opportunity to see a segment of man's art which has never before been presented so well in the United States in any one showing. The title of the exhibition is Art of the Congo. That is a perfectly proper and accurate title, not however as precise as it might be. I should rather say with scientific accuracy that it is the traditional sculpture of the Congo. And I proposed in this talk to locate that segment of man's art in place and time and to give the main characteristics of it, a bit of its character and to say something about the classification and study of that art. And then after preamble or the first part of my talk, we will look at some slides on the screen, and I relate those objects to what we have said. And then perhaps some of you have been looking at the show or looking again at the show can relate many of the pieces in the show to what we say here tonight.
Now in order to play it safe, I am going to stick rather close to my notes for just this first part of the talk because I know from experience that if I don't, the interesting sidelights and the interesting little excursions will use up too much time. So I hope you won't mind if I follow the notes closely in order to present what I think is a rather concentrated bit for the 20 minutes or so that we have to devote to it and then come to the slides. Now the place that we are talking about requires a little explanation. It is Central Africa. If you look down the west coast of Africa, about halfway down, you will find the mouth of the great Congo River. And as you look at that map, the Congo River comes in from the Atlantic Ocean, goes rather far up north, goes very Far East, the greater part of the way to the east coast of Africa and then comes far down south called the Lualaba River in its origin but it is really the same river as the Congo.
Now the region we are talking about tonight is the north, the north and the east bank of the Congo River for some goodly number of miles and all of the territory to the south of that river, all that enormous region in the band of the Congo River coming even a bit further south still. Now those territories, that region, part of it was formerly dominated by France. A bit of it was formerly dominated by Germany before the First World War. A bit of it is still dominated by Portugal in the northern part of Angola. But by far, the major part of that region was formerly dominated by Belgium.
Now we are not talking about all the art of the Congo. There are arts such as textiles, weaving, pottery, in more recent years water color painting of some significance which are not in this show. What we have those of you who have seen this show can say immediately what we have, our objects carved for the major part in wood, sometimes in ivory, very infrequently in stone. So we have sculptures in other words. Now our precise title reads 'traditional sculpture of the Congo', and there is that word 'traditional'. By traditional, we mean the sculpture that was produced by the inhabitance of the region when it was not influenced by outside art styles and not changed or replaced by disruptive forces from outside.
We know of such traditional sculpture in the Congo in the 16th century, the 17th century, the 18th century, the 19th century. And in parts of the Congo, it continues to be produced today. However, the 20th century has brought great changes in the life of the Congo and its people. And unfortunately, for the traditional arts, the greatest changes were sometimes brought in the richest art-producing regions. Here it was not merely a question of the traditional Congo art being influenced by European art styles, but the social structure, the political structure, the economic structure and even the religious structure were so radically changed by industrialization that the traditional art tended simply to die out.
In the new way of life, there was no call for the objects which no longer had any function or whose function could be served by objects bought in ______ 7:21 stores or department stores, and carvers in the old style had no successors. Then again, sometimes carving talent has been diverted in the last 30 years or 40 years, has been diverted to making articles for the tourist train, which articles because tourists are largely airborne these days are often referred to now as 'airport art.' Sometimes objects were made for the European and American market directly. Whether imitating old forms or new forms, this is of course not authentic art. It seems rather unlikely that future Congolese art will represent a continuation of the old, and our traditional sculpture of the Congo is tending pretty much to become a closed chapter in the art history of mankind.
Now in passing, let us remark that when art styles or cultures come into contact with each other, the influence is almost always reciprocal. We all know how pieces of African sculpture came as a revelation to Picasso, Modigliani and others of the Parisian school at the beginning of this century. As a matter of fact, 15 or 20 years before that, Congo pieces had come as a revelation to the Belgium painter James Ensor, and they a played a part in the development of modern European painting and sculpture.
Now what are the characteristics of our traditional sculpture of the Congo? First, physically, it is in wood for the most part, sometimes in ivory or bone, very infrequently in stone, and also very infrequently in metal or clay. It is ______ 9:48, that is to say it is carved out of the block; it is out of one piece, almost never is anything joined. No matter how small or how big the object to be carved, it must be taken out of a trunk of a tree big enough to make that object. It is very much sculpture in the round. Many of you know something about the art of the Pacific regions. There you have many flat pieces of sculpture, plaques and so on. The Congolese sculpture is definitely in the round out of the trunk of the tree or out of the tusk of the elephant.
It is rarely polychrome. Again, the Pacific art is highly colored but Congo art is almost always black or dark reddish brown or black or brown, colored by the action of mud chemical mineral action of mud which turns the wood black after the piece is carved, or by rubbing with leaves of trees which brings out the sort of brown color of many of the woods, or most commonly a deep dark red or reddish black which comes from a particular kind of tree, the powder of that tree mixed sometimes with palm oil.
The Congo art is in general frontal or symmetrical, meaning that the two halves of the piece of sculpture, the vertical halves match each other or are images, mirror images of each other. They are symmetrical. It is anthropomorphic in general, not very often zoomorphic. In other words, man is the touchstone, and animal sculpture, animal carvings are much rarer than in many other parts of the world, some parts of which animal carvings predominate. And the Congo sculpture very rarely presents groups of figures, almost always the single figure, the only general exception or major exception to that is the mother and child figure which of course is pretty universal. So much for the physical characteristics of our Congo art sculpture. But why then do so many of these pieces have so much life, so much emotional content such and sort of uncanny appeal.
We have spoken of the severe symmetry, the frontality of most of these figures without gestures, without unsymmetrical positions, without portraying motion, these sculptures one would expect should seem static. But on the contrary, they have great tension and vitality. And this has to do with something very fundamental about them and their creation. I think I can best illustrate it by an anecdote, a true story. A friend of mine went outside when I was in Congo, a friend of mine went outside Kinshasa, the former ______ 13:38 outside the town limits, along the banks of the Congo River. At that point, the Congo is a broad muddy stream, the shoreline is almost without vegetation, very bare, almost barren. It is a flat landscape of rather barren land on both sides of the river and the muddy river, and that's all.
And you saw there on the banks of the river a Congolese artist who was taking after the Europeans and had gone out with an easel and watercolor paints to paint in the European style. And he had set up his easel in the usual fashion along side the river on the bank of the river, he was busy painting. As usual, there were various people looking over his shoulder. My friend went up also looked over his shoulder and he saw that this Congolese artist was painting a scene deep in the jungle with monkeys on the trees, no sign of a river, completely the opposite from what was before him as he sat out there with his easel.
Now that is very significant because the Congolese artist in his tradition does not work from the model. He is a cerebral and intellectual and emotional art, not a purely sensory or visual or optical art. He does not paint or sculpt with his eye, but with his mind's eye. And in that, his tradition is fundamentally different from the European tradition. And from that comes the stylization that often strikes the conventional European as distortion.
Now I have a converse example which complements that anecdote beautifully and which shows again how things work both ways and how men are pretty much alike. Back in the early years of this century, some French and Belgium artists who had been brought up in the classical European tradition, and its continuation, the impressionist school, wanted to break away from that domination into new ground. They were trying to move onto new impressionism and towards expressionism as the isms happen.
I was reading just recently in the manuscript of a book which is going to be published soon, how one of these artist went about it instead of going out with his easel into the countryside and painting impressionistic scenes from nature in the customary way. He went out into the country side with pencil and paper and made sketches from nature. He then returned to his house, turned his back on nature as the book says that is shot himself indoors and proceeded to make paintings from his sculptures. Now why the sculptures. They made no more sense than the Congolese artist taking his easel to the bare river bank to paint a jungle scene. Just as the Congolese artist missed the point of painting from nature because it was not in his tradition so the European artist was unable to escape from his tradition and unable to paint without a model before him. There is as you see a big difference in approach.
Now the objects that comprise our traditional sculpture of the Congo can be classified for convenience according to type and function into three groups. One, masks: two, utilitarian objects; and three, figures. Masks as you can imagine are worn or held before the face in dances or ceremonies or rights of one kind or another. Utilitarian objects serve many purposes. They can be subdivided into two groups, those that are purely utilitarian and those that also have a sociopolitical or socio-religious function. Figures may occur as utilitarian un-utilitarian objects or even on the top of masks. But it is convenient to put freestanding figures in a group by themselves and to divide them into two subgroups. These are usually called ancestor figures or commemorative figures or symbolic figures on the one hand and fetish figures or magic figures or ritual figures on the other hand.
While the distinction is not always perfectly clear for practical purposes, one can say that fetish figures are once those have something added to them to impart special power or magic. When we look at the pictures a bit later, we will see more on this point. Again, let us remark how similar people are all over the world. In the United States, there is quite a trade in rabbit's feet, or rabbit foots or whatever they are called in plural. In good luck horseshoes, St. Christopher medals and various animals are doll mascots. But one rabbit's foot looks very much like another rabbit's foot, and none of them have any greatest static appeal. So art history does not concern itself with them any more than it does with the ordinary looking objects, whether of animal, vegetable or mineral origin that often serve as fetishes or charms in the Congo. But in the Congo, there were fetish figures with great artistic power as well, and they are in our repertoire of traditional Congolese sculpture.
Finally, in this little introduction, I want to say just a word about the classification of Congo pieces, according to provenance or style, in other words, the geographical or tribal names that are assigned to them in books and in exhibitions. Here there is a great deal of confusion as many of you have observed. The intelligent reader or collector sees it. But if he is charitable, he assumes that the experts must have assistant even though it escapes him. The situation is too complicated to discuss here. Suffice it to say that the basic difficulty is that we do not know exactly where most of the old Congo pieces were found. Let alone to what village or tribe, the anonymous artist belonged who made them.
If we do not know the provenance, we can never find it out because there were of course never any documents or records in the Congo. In the long run, the corpus of traditional Congolese sculpture that exists around the world will have to be studied and classified according to style, that is the morphological features of the sculpture. But such analysis is still very young and incomplete, particularly in Central Africa. In the meanwhile, the experts, most of whom are anthropologists or ethnographers, know what they are doing, but they do not seem to mind that it is inconsistent. If they do not know the provenance of a piece, they classify the piece according to style. But if they know or think they know it's provenance, then they give it that geographical or tribal name, even if they themselves would give it a different attribution if they used the style of the piece as the criterion.
Thus, there arises a multiplicity of geographical and tribal designations which do not necessarily represent different styles. So there is overlapping and confusion. Some of it is unavoidable because a little thorough study has been done, particularly in Central Africa, much less than in West Africa, such places as Nigeria. And if you are confused by the designations and the names, just remember that if you try to get professors and scientists to agree to call a spade a spade, there will always be some who insist that all spades should be called shovels, and there will be some others who admit that spades should be called spades, except for certain pieces which look like spades but which will be called shovels.
Now it is lots of fun fighting about this, and nobody gets killed. In my opinion, the art historians will have the last word in the classification of traditional Congolese sculpture in the long run because the anonymous nature of that corpus, that body of artwork and the very little documentation that exists about it will never permit any other way of organizing it. Now with that general introduction, I want to proceed to look at some examples of Congolese sculpture. These are not pieces which are in the show here, with a few remarks relating them to what we have just said. Perhaps you can then look at the exhibition here with a little more knowledge, and you have a perfect right to consider yourself experts. So let's begin now to look at the pieces.
Now here I am starting, first of all, not talking about masks in the slides, not showing any slides of masks because there are great many masks in the show here in the museum, almost a hundred of them.
(Informal talk)
So I am not showing masks. As we said, masks have served a simple function, in that they are always connected, practically always with dense, rights of various kinds and are worn or held before the face, except for a couple of small ones that are not true masks, we will see later. So we start not with masks but with the second category Utilitarian Pieces. This is a purely utilitarian piece. It comes from what was formerly in the French-Congo region, and it is a hook so called. At the bottom attached to the openings was a basket to hold food, provisions. The hook at the back of the head was then hooked into the woven wall of the cabin, of the hut, of the house, and thus suspended the basket with its food above the ground to keep it away from dirt and insects and so on. In other words, this was an object to serve a purely practical mundane purpose, and you see the sculpture and the art that is there.
Another one utilitarian, this is of whistle, carried around the neck on a cord to use in hunting out in the field or to signal. It blows with three tones because of the holes at the bottom and near the mouthpiece, and it represents the Yakka style of hair dress, exaggerated a bit, also the Yakka nose exaggerated a bit. A third, purely utilitarian piece, this is what's carried on a string attached to the belt of the man, and it is a tobacco mortar. The head is hollow, and by putting in a little tobacco, fragments of tobacco leaves, one could grind those with the thumb or with the mortar, with the pestle or the finger, grind them into powder or find tobacco particles to be smoked in a pipe or very often use this snuff. But there is a figure with enormous tension in the Luluwa style of the middle part of the Congo to serve a purely utilitarian purpose.
And finally, in the purely utilitarian category, a very complex statue, this is a water pipe. It is not quite complete, in that the piece is hollow, hollow all the way down to those ______ 30:02. It was filled with water up to the neck, a small bowl and stem was inserted under the left breast where you see a little hole into the body of the thing, and a mouthpiece was put in the top of the head. Then of course, when one lighted the it is not in this case, tobacco is hemp, sort of marijuana to smoke. When that was lighted, one sucked in the mouthpiece, emptied the head of air, created the vacuum. Of course, the smoke was pulled in and filled it through the water into the head in the next part where you would get the smoke. But there is again, it's purely for smoking, practical purpose.
Then we have another practical piece, utilitarian, a headrest. As you may know, they often in many parts of the Congo as many other parts of the world slept with the side of the head resting on a support, instead of a pillow if you will. This is a figure of the Yakka supporting platform as a headrest, no other great utilitarian object. The second utilitarian object of the same sort, headrest in this case was an animal, an antelope represented.
Then we come to a stool. This, as I said, made out of one tree trunk, in this case a considerable diameter carved out of in piece is a chief's stool. Now of course, as in all societies, the expensive and the elegant and the fancy piece often acquired a status or a social significance. The ordinary people in the old days in the Congo did not sit on stools like this. They sat, I suppose, then on tree trunks. Now a lot of them sit on Coca Cola cases. But the notables, the well-to-do people and the chiefs had in the old days stools of this kind which represented something to sit on but also showed that it was somebody important who had his fenny parked on it. This is second one, different tribe, different style, different part of the Congo, slightly, but showing a very open chief's stool.
Now we come to the utilitarian object. The stools have a certain social or, let's say, political significance. This is the figure from the top of a staff. The staff is in many societies was the symbol of rank, only the chief and in some cases a very notable was not a chief, could carry a staff. The staff was often ornamented, in this case, this beautiful figure on the top of the staff. The staff itself was just a pole which has been cutoff. Here you have a utilitarian object in a sense but serving more as a status symbol and of course for any useful purpose. And you have on the top of it, as you see, a little bundle. That is a bundle of power, of magic, material. In other words, in this case, the social symbol was strengthened further and became a bit of a talisman or magic symbol, magic piece as well. There is no hard and fast line, as I said I think earlier, between the so-called fetish or magic or charm figure and figures that are perhaps to denote social rank or nearly commemorative figures.
Now see the difference in style between the preceding and this. This is the top of a staff. Again the bottom has been cut off. It's a bust from the top of the staff of people that is right next to the people who produce the preceding one. Here you have the kind of thing that was so impressive to the Europeans in the early part of the century, the bold, somewhat very stylized, somewhat abstract, even sculpture that you can see was a contributor to the development of cubism even in the French school in the early part of the century, very powerful carving which at that time to the European steeped in his European and classical traditions was a real eye opener. This again is the top of a chief staff. You notice in the stomach, in the navel an opening which has and it's still some of the old magic substance, again giving it extra power over and above its status significance.
Now we come to an ivory emulate. This is not big, about two or three inches long at most, and it is worn on a chord round the neck in this particular people of the Congo as a symbol of manhood attained, when the male reaches majority has accepted as a male member of the tribe, an adult male member, the carver in the old days made him such an emulate which he wore around his neck, unless he lost it in which case he got another one, wore it for the rest of his life. It is in the form of a mask but of course is very small and it's worn as a pendant. And I have one more example to show the same thing. That is another one. These, when they are good, are extremely striking and beautiful pieces.
Then we come to an ivory figure, semi figure, abstracted figure which denotes as a social significance, denoted rank in the adult society of the particular people. This is the ______ 37:42 group. This is in ivory as you see with cowry shells serving as eyes and the different grades of seniority in the male society of that particular tribe or people, had different symbols, different pieces. This is one. I have another one, show you another one. This ivory, as you see, has been treated with that tukula or red wood powder mixed with palm oil and then applied to the ivory over many years to achieve that color and that depth of pattern.
Here we come to a utilitarian object with magic function as well. It is a divining instrument that was used in consultations between members of the inhabitants of the village and the source or a medicine man, whatever you want to call him in English, there is no good single term, consultations which could concern many things. One would be, is it a propitious day to go on the big hunt that I have had plan, should I go next Saturday or something. And there was a consultation with the man, each party holding with two fingers through the opening and holding the thing over a line marked on the ground in this particular part of Congo, done differently in different part. As in other words, a bit as a ______ 39:39 art, if you will. And by manipulating it around with the eyes closed, one had his decision made for and much as a lot of slip of coin sometimes to decide which to do, yes or no. This is another one for the same purpose but with two little figures or semi figures from different people and the joining people in a different style.
Now I come to show the diversity of Congo sculpture even within a single category of object. I have a little maybe six I think here cups which after an introduction I will show rather rapidly because we haven't time to go more slowly. These were wooden cups that were used in the central part of the Congo particularly in the great kingdom of the Bushongo or the Kuba, the Bakuba people, and they were used sometimes to drink palm wine out of on ceremonial occasions, sometimes to hold powder in ceremonies and rituals, for various purposes. But you will see here within just as cups, the variety of style that there is and the diversity.
This is another one in that shape and a different kind of finish. There is one which was used definitely for drinking palm wine probably because one when one examines that you see at the top, the opening at the top of the head because the whole thing is hollowed, the whole thing is hollowed out right down to the bottom of the front, the edge has been worn away by so much application of lefts to the front. At the top, you can see it in the picture I think, they are a little it's a very old piece. This one was used for powder to keep the red to cool a powder in it, still completely saturated with it on the inside and has a cover on it. And the foot is broken off. The back to the left, there was a complete foot ending in toes at the back but that's been broken off partly. And when it had that full foot, it was engineered so that it balanced perfectly by itself.
There is another one cup. And finally, this is from different people, this is a double cup. When you turn it the other way upside down from the way it is now, it is a cup with two parts to it, a partition between which is not a complete partition which permits the liquid to mix and that one finds in many parts of the world, a double cup used in marriage ceremonies and all kinds of things where each of the parties drinks from his half of the cup but the liquid is (inaudible 43:14) in common because it flows together through an opening in the partition.
Now we come to figures, as such freestanding figures. Here we have an example of the mother and child figure, the child held there, and that's from the mouth of the Congo River, good example of the mother and the child which is a commemorative figure. By the way, the sense it is not a magic figure, it is an honor, if you will, of motherhood and child perhaps to some extent (inaudible 43:59) sometimes for a woman who had no child baby and wanted one. But in itself, it is what we would call a commemorative figure. Here on the other hand is so-called fetish figure from the same people, mouth of the Congo, the Congo tribe, Bakongo.
Here you see in this particular part of the Congo, in this particular part of the Congo in this particular style, the magic substance is in the little box which is on the stomach, and that is a box holding the magic powders and mixture and then covered over in the old days with sheets of mica which were found in the river there. And of course, in later days, they got bits of glass from European, things brought in by Europeans in that part of the Congo because only at the mouth of the Congo were the Europeans present from way back, first Europeans. The Portuguese went there at the mouth of the Congo in 1500 approximately. And for about 200 years, mainly Portuguese and Italians were living just at the mouth of the Congo there. They did not penetrate inland very far off.
There were mainly two types of people; traders who were getting ivory and rubber and so on brought to them from inland by the natives, and there were missionaries, proselytizing. Those Europeans left that part of the Congo around 1700 shortly thereafter, and then they had never gone into the interior. And from it was only in the 19th century and mainly after 1880 that the expiration of the interior parts of the Congo took place, began to take place, so that the sculpture that we have, what we call the old sculpture of the Congo, is mainly from the 19th century. It is uninfluenced by the Europeans in the main, and we have some pieces, no doubt a few, from the 18th century, perhaps none earlier than that because the climate there is very hard on wood. Ivory pieces last better, and there are perhaps some ivory pieces from the early 18th century.
A second from the same region mirror fetish it was called because of the habit of putting mica or glass on the front of the fetish box. Now here is a commemorative figure from the completely different part of the Congo from the extreme north, eastern part up near the Sudan. And this, as you see, shows a rather different type of physique. It shows also the lengthening of the head which was an Egyptian, binding of the head of children, infants, done by the ancient Egyptians, and which is also done by these Mangbetu people. Their length in the head, some of the particularly the notables, the higher ups in the society, the heads of their children, their babies and then they even have a hairdo or hair dress style which tends to lengthen the head in appearance much more still. This is, what we call, an ancestor or commemorative figure, a very old one and one which you don't find much more.
And here from, not too far from there, a bit into the forest comes this which is, we might call, Henry Moore. It is also an ancestor commemorative figure. It represents in a sense somebody's grandmother, and it shows very clearly what you know to be the case that in Congolese are. There was never we can really say any attempt that portraiture to render, that's a foreign completely to them. As my anecdote showed you, to look at a person, use the person as a model, make resembling figure to that person is not a way to honor the person. And of course, that's true for good many of us, we do much better be remembered otherwise.
Here we have from the ______ 48:57, a magic figure, ritual figure, statue which has in this case as the attributes, the stomach package and a horn, a small horn, small antelope horn in the head, which is the hole and the horn are filled with the magic substances, and then the horn is stuck on there. It also has hand-forged, handmade copper nails which give power to the piece. And in the show here, you will see from entirely different part of the Congo the so-called nail fetishes of the Congo, the Bakongo region with nails all over the body and bits of metal of all sorts. There are some two or three in this exhibition which I would be willing to bet they are not a single one in the all of the Congo anymore. There would never be another one coming out of Congo. They aren't there anymore.
And the second one of the same style in this case in addition to the stomach and the antelope horn, there is a snake skin around the neck which is a further holder of magic around the neck and the upper trunk. And here is another fetish figure from different parts still of the Congo showing the variety of style. In this case, the only overt, magic is inserted in the side and the picture doesn't show it. In the left side, there is an opening covered over by glass or bits of some kind of glassy substance, and it's in the side in this case in this particular part of the Congo rather than in the front or in the head.
And here is the warrior figure commemorating the warrior from the ______ 51:11 tribe which is partly in Northern Angola and partly north of that in the Congo region itself. This you see again the expression of power; you see the hands; you don't see them as powerful as you do looking at the piece. The oversized hands, the power, the right hand holding, even a knife which is in iron hand forged, little knife. In the right hand, it represents the warrior or perhaps the chieftain warrior of that people.
So I think that our time, we are coming out just about right, and this little sample of perhaps 30 or so pieces I have chosen to show some of the variety in style and type of object will perhaps help you give you some ideas. If you go and look carefully at the wonderful exhibition here, you can be able to associate some of these pieces you have seen with some of those that are here from to _____ 52:29. And perhaps you can become an expert in one hour. Thank you very much.

Publisher (Electronic Version)

Archives and Manuscripts Collections, The Baltimore Museum of Art;

Holding Institution

Baltimore Museum of Art;

Date Original

1968-02-20

Date Digital

2011

Type

Sound;

Format

Digital reproduction of one sound tape reel, 53 minutes

Source

Audiovisual Collection, AV.RR.13.A

Coverage (Time Period)

1961-1970;

Rights

Permission to reproduce this item is required and may be subject to copyright, fees, and other legal restrictions. For more information, please contact: E. Kirkbride Miller Art Research Library, Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, (443) 573-1778, bmalibrary@artbma.org